From the impossible

A mentor could mean a teacher. But what I think The Daily Prompt wants today is the mentor, those who guided you more personally or probably more of a moral teacher. But what I want to talk about today is about the “greatest lesson” part instead.

I went to Christian school from kindergarten to high school. A school that offer all levels of educations (up to high school). One of the compulsory class is Religion. Coincidentally the only religion they teach in Christian Schools is Christianity, of course.

We had a church attached to the school, and I was very active in that church’s related activity. Therefore, most of the teachers (especially the church’s Pastors and Evangelists who were also involved in the formal education system) know me. It kind of put me on the spot light and anything unholy I did in school was automatically spread across the church’s council. Especially when I was the leader of the Church Youth Committee when this story happen.

We had a new teacher who taught Religion and also one of the church Evangelist (it was a Methodist church). I still have the impression that she’s a little bit lack mentally like those of Down’s syndrome but a very mild version of it. She’s emotionally immature, take serious things playfully but take playful things seriously, and honestly (at least in my teenage brain) I think she’s unfit as a teacher. But, she taught me the greatest lesson that I believe had changed the course of my life.

In high school, we need to take an exam for each class every month. And for the first time ever, this new Religion’s teacher set a new rule for her exam, saying that we have to declare “we honestly did the exam by ourselves and without cheating” at the end of the answer sheet.

There is no reason that this trick will work because 99% of the class will write that statement at the end of the paper without hesitation even though they cheated like we click on “I Agree” without reading a single word of the Licence Agreement. However, there are the 1% and I was one of the 1% who was so naive and stupid (but very honest) who will write the true truth. And what I wrote was “I had honestly answered all the questions by myself except for the last one because I forgot the verse’s number and I got the answer from my friend sitting next to me”

A few moments later, I was summoned by the church leaders for questioning, Apparently it’s a sin to tell the truth that you’ve sinned while the other 99% of the class got away because they lied. And because I was such an amazing worshiper and the committee leader, they were really disappointed.

I wasn’t the only one who wrote the true truth and got punished (we had to retake the exam), but this whole thing didn’t stop me from telling the true truth. I could had left that last answer blank and get an 80% score and be happy with it because that’s what I’ve deserved. This is not the lesson about lying. This is the story about self confidence.

What I’ve learn from this story is that we cheat because we don’t trust ourselves. We are afraid of failure that leads us in taking shortcuts. And most of the time we end up wasting more time in finding one without really getting anywhere. I learned to trust myself. And whatever I get out of it, it’s what I deserve.